As the World Turns

It's been so long since I blogged that today as I sat down, I was very happy to see that Blogger still remembered my password. I'm not sure I do!

What a crazy, twilight zone sort of few months we have had. So amazing, at times I wanted to sit down and blog but I just didn't know how to collect my thoughts. I was completely irritated during the entire debate on the debt ceiling, but as we rounded into the last week of debate it was truly amazing.

I feel like we, the people, have been wagged. What do I mean? You know, the tail is wagging the dog. Big time. The class warfare that has been encouraged from the top is astounding. The bitter, non-negotiable words that were said right before everyone shook hands and miraculously made a deal just blew me away. I don't know what I was really expecting on August 2nd, but what happened really surprised me.

If I had much faith in the politicians involved before last week, I really lost it all after the "deal" that was made. It was no deal. Maybe some individuals in Washington won, but I'm certain the rest of us lost. Nobody really made any real cuts. The bad habits that have gotten us where we are have no reason to change. It was almost eerie the way some people were celebrating, when there was nothing to celebrate. I was especially shocked by the way the progressive left engaged in hateful rhetoric towards the Tea Party giving them "credit" for bowling over the President and demanding what they wanted in terrorist style. The Tea Party did NOT win last week. No way. But now the left media is trying to paint it that way and stir up their base. Great. I was hoping their base was about as complacent as the right was under George W. Bush.

If the Tea Party had one, some of this week's headlines might be different. The White House touted the S&P's threat to lower our credit rating to AA from AAA as a major reason to raise the debt ceiling, but wait...just today ABC reported that the federal government is expecting a downgrade in their rating due to "the political confusion surrounding the process of raising the debt ceiling and lack of confidence that the political system will be able to agree to more deficit reduction." Is this really a surprise?

Oh, and China is still planning to diversify away from the dollar. Hmmm. Shocking really. I guess the President's scare tactics worked on more than just the American people. Unforeseen side effect? I don't really think so. I know this sounds insanely negative, but I am not so sure the bad economy is a bad thing for Obama's reelection. Under President Obama, the number of people on food stamps (you know, the snazzy sounding SNAP program) has gone from 22 million to 44 million. It's 14.3% of the population. Oh wait, that was a few months ago. Now it's touted as 45.8 on Drudge Report. You think those folks would vote for a fiscal conservative? The more that our citizens must depend on the government, the better it is for President Obama. I'm not sure that the people who are rounding into their second year of unemployment benefits are in a hurry to get someone in office who things 22 months of free money is too long.

Need a positive spin? Okay, I'll give you one. My husband and I are not really Greta van Susteren fans, but we both enjoyed one particular question she raised in all of this great debt debate. Why do we care that S&P and Moody's are threatening to downgrade our credit rating? They are the ones who triggered the collapse of the housing market in 2007 when they rapidly downgraded "inflated ratings they slapped on complex mortgage-backed securities." The Senate has been investigating them for years. It's a messy loop of buddies rating their buddies up there. One article I read today (from ABC of course) cited lack of tax increases in the debt ceiling bill as a reason to downgrade us. If that's not somebody in the rating industry using their influence I don't know what is. The positive part of that? I had no idea about any of this, did you? I just loved that someone brought this little tidbit of how the world turns to my attention. It seldom happens and I always appreciate it.